Memoirs of a Pet Collector

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Friday, 7 March 2014

Again, real life has taken over the past few weeks. I sadly haven't had time nor the want to play WoW at the moment. It's quite sad when I hit a dip in playing, and usually I miss out on a once in a lifetime pet, I'll always be mad that I missed out on the Vampiric Batling. Inbetween work, planning my wedding next year, getting settled in our new place, and that I got DOS box working, the constant desire to play Theme Hospital has replaced my WoW addiction.

It doesn't help that I've seen snippets of news on Facebook concerning Warlords of Draenor, and was extremely put off with the instant boost to 90 they are looking to charge people. It really angered me to the point of Blizzard disregarding the older expansions. So you make people buy them to have to install enough expansions to get to the newest one, yet your boost to 90 offer completely ignores those expansions you paid for...what!? I really hope I've missed another piece of news stating that you don't need those expansions anymore, but I highly doubt it. I really couldn't get my head around it.

Some news I did like the look of was that the Diablo 3: RoS Collectors edition Treasure Goblin is available in game, so will have to log in at some point to have a spy at him. Also loving the new Diablo 3 patch, with the exp and loot increase running up till RoS hits us on the 25th March. Currently waiting for the patch to download before I can play my Demon Hunter again, and finally get some loot without farming for weeks. Loved that in the PS3 version, so extremely excited to see that the PC version is revamped and kicking some ass once again.

If I don't post for a while, again, then apologies in advance, and happy gaming!

Saturday, 15 February 2014

I wanted to create a 'Top 5' series of posts for some of my favourite moments in WoW. Please feel free to join me

Illidan

I never got the chance to actually kill him when the raid was current content, but the overall feel and backstory to this whole raid was just incredible.

Lich King

Another epic story and the first time I teleported up to his throne was goosebump inducing! That race to get him to 10% health was immense and I remember the shouts and screams over vent when we finally did it. I had avoided watching the cinematic until we killed him also, so that was a great bonus. We (me and my bf) head back to ICC every week for the hope that Invincible will soon be ours to command!

Yoggsaron

The old gods lore has always intrigued me. Ulduar is a WotLK raid, and of course when you hear that you think of Icecrown Citadel and killing the Lich King and you know your going to get there eventually. With Ulduar, it was something that was silently brewing for a long time, and that something was Yoggsaron. The build up through the quest zones was great, especially when you would get whispered by Yoggy and just the mention of him was enough to terrify. I personally find Yoggy a more terrifying aspect than the Lich King rising the dead up against you. The not knowing is what creeps me out with Yoggy, and him patiently waiting underground for his time to strike. We are currently running Ulduar weekly for the chance at getting the Mimiron's Head mount.

Algalon

The thing that I remember the most about Algalon is that this fight gave many many people graphic problems with the lovely sparkly shiney 'warp speed' animation when you first speak to him to start the fight. He is such a great boss, and I think the fact that he was only accessable when you got the key made from doing hardmodes, people would definately do an irl /flex for having the achievement.

Onyxia

Classic raid, with a teeny amount of trash, one of the perks of course! Back in the day when she was spying in Stormwind was an amazing storyline! Loved her come back in Blackwing Descent, looking a bit shabby, but I would take that look if I had come back from the dead as much as she has.

Sunday, 9 February 2014

Time for another of Batinna's transmog challenges, and this time its the 'Punk' theme! I struggled to find a typically punk theme, and instead, have opted to go with a steampunk look. I wanted to capture the use of gold/bronze coloured weapons and also quite traditional, old fashioned dress and I think I've managed it!

Overall I'm quite pleased with the look, I would have probably changed my weapon to using a gun or some sort, if I could actually wield them to begin with, but nevermind! Its not typically what I had planned for this 'Punk' post, but it all fits together nicely.

Thursday, 6 February 2014

I haven't participated in a Blog Azeroth shared topic in ages and this weeks topic intrigues me to find out the story behind the class I play, a Deathknight.

I have played WoW from Vanilla and Deathknights did not appear as playable characters till Wrath of the Lich King, but their presence was there in the Warcraft universe way before World of Warcraft existed, so it was only a matter of time before we would get to play as them. A lot of interaction through questing, pin pointed key names and the faction standing against the scourge, the Argent Dawn. Quite frankly its quite confusing to keep up with who did what where, but I personally remember Kel'thuzad being the main name to stand out, alongside the Lich King of course. I knew he was one of the Lich Kings top agents, but since doing my research for this post, he pretty much ruined Azeroth and changed everything.

We got a great history lesson throughout these quests, involving many different families and people who were slowly corrupted and/or destroyed. Alexandros Mograine of the Argent Dawn and his sons Renault and Darion were definitely the core of the story, and WoWWiki have it written so perfectly;

'During the assault on Blackrock Spire in the Second War, Mograine of the Silver Hand
witnessed an orcish warlock channeling magic through a dark orb. After
the warlock's death, Mograine went to claim it for the Alliance, but his
hand was badly mangled as soon as he touched it. Though describing the
orb as the "living embodiment of shadow," he was still curious as to
what power it might hold and kept it in an iron chest.
Mograine kept the orb a secret until the Scourge reached Lordaeron. He revealed it to several other members of the Silver Hand, suggesting that they search for the orb's polar opposite - a manifestation of the Light
itself - to be used against the impending undead holocaust. Mograine's
peers, appalled at the sight of this dark crystal, attempted to destroy
it with a holy spell. Unexpectedly, the crystal absorbed the spell and
became its antithesis, the very crystal of pure light that Mograine
suggested moments before, and even restored life to his mangled hand. It
was decided that from this crystal a weapon would be forged that would
smite the undead with such power that only a cloud of ash would remain
in its wake—The Ashbringer.Under the command of Saidan Dathrohan, Mograine and Fairbanks traveled to Ironforge to ask King Magni Bronzebeard to forge the mighty blade. Magni, having only just learned of his brother's
apparent demise, was more than willing to craft a weapon to battle the
undead, and described it as the greatest creation wrought by his hand.

Mograine and the other former Knights of the Silver Hand banded together to continue the war against the Lich King.
Alexandros was appointed Highlord and the Ashbringer was the Order's
greatest weapon. However, the blade caught the attention of Kel'Thuzad. Striking a deal with Balnazzar,
who had covertly taken control of the Order by possessing Dathrohan and
wished to use it against the Lich King, the two planned to kill him. To
do so, Balnazzar corrupted Mograine's son Renault and had him lead his father into a trap. Renault led his father and High Inquisitor Fairbanks to Stratholme
where an army of undead waited for them. Renault fled and Fairbanks,
being the first to fall, was trapped under the pile of undead corpses.
Mograine stood alone against the undead, yet managed to destroy all sent
at him. In fatigue, Alexandros dropped his blade. Renault returned and
killed Mograine with his own sword, corrupting the Ashbringer. Unable to use the blade, Renault left it with his father's corpse.
However, Kel'Thuzad raised the Ashbringer's corpse turning him into a death knight of the Scourge, and reclaimed his blade. Kel'Thuzad took Mograine back to Naxxramas to have him serve as one of the Four Horsemen. Later, led by nightmares of his father's tortured soul, Darion led a small group of Argent Dawn members into Naxxramas
to free him. Darion was the only one to survive the assault, escaping
with the blade but forced to leave his father's body behind.
When Darion returned to the Scarlet Monastery with the blade,
Alexandros's corrupted spirit manifested and confronted Renault,
accusing him of murder before mercilessly killing him. Later, during a
Scourge assault on Light's Hope Chapel,
Darion plunged the Ashbringer into his own chest in an act of
self-sacrifice that obliterated the Scourge armies and seemingly freed
Alexandros's soul of the Scourge's corruption. In doing so, however,
Darion damned himself into undeath and was escorted off the battlefield
by Kel'Thuzad.'

The Argent Dawn quests in Eastern Plaguelands were a great stepping
stone to set the scene and ultimately we would be lead to Naxxramas, for the first time in game.
Sadly I didn't raid in vanilla so I never got to experience it back
then. The main attraction, if you want to call it that, was to be an owner of the Corrupted Ashbringer sword, which was eventually removed from the game. Owners of it got to experience a special in game event when you would enter Scarlet Monastery, showing Alexandros get his revenge upon Renault. When Naxxramas re-appeared for WotLK I was pleased to see they didn't re-instate the ability to get it as it would lessen the importance of it.

Darion made his re-appearance as a high lord at Ebon Hold, the DK starting area. The zone is extremely well planned out, having familiar faces teach you the ways of being the perfect Deathknight.

As you quest through the zone, and kill many many people, the ultimate quest, the Battle for Light's Hope Chapel, is where the Deathknights, led by Darion still wielding the Corrupted Ashbringer, march upon Light's Hope Chapel and Tirion Fordring. The Deathknights are no match and are defeated on the holy ground which the chapel stands. Alexandros suddenly appears to Darion, as a flash back. Arthas then appears and claims his soul. Defeated, Darion then learns from Tirion of his betrayal by Arthas, sending them in to purposely die. Arthas attacks Tirion, which forces Darion to break his bonds to the Lich Kings service and throws the Corrupted Ashbringer for Tirion to push Arthas back. Shocked by this, Arthas escapes (of course!) and we see Tirion join the Knights of the Silver Hand and Argent Dawn to create the Argent Crusade. Darion leads his Knights of the Ebon Blade to assist in the destruction of the Lich King and the scourge and for to create a place for the renegade Deathknights to call home. I found a fantastic WoW Machinima of The Battle for Light's Hope Chapel, please check it out!

We, the newly freed Deathknights, are now free to go about our business as any other class would, not before we get pelted with old food when we walk through Orgrimmar/Stormwind for the first time though!

It must have taken so long for the developers to weave all of this lore together and to create the start up zone to perfection, sure the story was there, but a lot of people know the lore inside out so any incorrect points would have shattered the experience for players.

I've really learnt a lot from doing this research, I knew the general points of the story, but it feels nice to increase my understanding of the history involved with the development of my character.

Wednesday, 5 February 2014

That's exactly how I feel since coming back to play WoW after my moving out break.

I am quite a competitive person, and when Warcraftpets tell me I am 7th on my server for my pet collection, I refuse to accept! I took a good long look at which pets I needed and which I could get my hands on as soon as possible and thankfully I have added another 3 to my collection since yesterday.

I completely missed the Christmas event this year so couldn't pick up my own Rotten Helper. A friend from my old guild traded me one in exchange for a lend of some of my cat pets to help him get his crazy cat man title.

I also totally missed the introduction of the in game blizzard store so when I discovered that and saw the Alterac brew pup was available, my mouse malfunctioned and accidentally bought one.

My third and final pet comes from hours of reacquainting myself with the Celestial Tournament and the lack of my little battle note book (currently on my old desk at home!). I could not remember which pets I used for which trainers, so that took some time and the patience of a saint.. but I was rewarded with Xu-fu! I only need Yu'la to complete my celestial pet set now!

I have noticed the EU store is back up and running for actual items
again, which means the Gryphon and Wyvern plushies are available. I
must resist these though, they are quite pricey, so definitely have to
join the 'to buy some time soon' pile along with the new D3 expansion
landing in March. I must have the treasure goblin pet! I get so excited when I spot them on D3 so having my own would be amazing.

The next pets I have my eyes on drop from the rares on the Timeless Isle, so alot of camping and praying seems to be in store for me.

I had to get the blue overalls, this item was an absolute must, but I couldn't decide which colour lumber jack shirt to get at first, but seeing as my tailor can only make the yellow one, my decision was made pretty fast ;) I also opted for the basic fishing pole, I just felt the fancy themed ones didn't look right with the plain and simple clothes I had picked.

Monday, 27 January 2014

I firstly want to apologise for just disappearing all of a sudden, but about 2 days after my last post, my boyfriend and I finally found a place of our own to move in together. It's been an exciting yet stressful time, especially since we wanted to be in before Christmas, but we are finally starting to feel settled in our new little nest. Since then I haven't blogged or played WoW but I am hoping that will change in the next week.

Watch this space! :D So pleased to be back and must make up for lost pet collecting time!

I could have bought a red, black or white crop top that you usually see the NPC pirates wearing, but saw this on the auction house and thought the colours were well matched for any aspiring pirate wolf. I spent a total of 43g and managed to pick up the eyepatch as a quest reward from the Stockades. My macaw pet also adds to my pirate theme :D

I started playing WoW back in 2005, and things were very different in those days! I was recommended the game by a friend from another game, Phantasy Star Online (gamecube version!) and he played on the Horde side, so naturally I started there.

I started life as an undead rogue, then quickly switched to an undead warlock. I really wasn't comfortable with the characters I had picked, and after a couple of weeks, asked my friend how I would become 'the one from the front of the WoW box' aka a Night Elf.

He explained that we wouldn't be able to play together, so initially my Nelf was supposed to be an alt, but eventually I ended up playing her more and my friend also quit playing. I made a Night Elf Hunter, Kaitlyn, and had my trusty pet tiger, Fluffling, by my side. I didn't raid in original WoW, our guild ran a lot of dungeons, most of which Fluffling would tank, and back in those days, I was very fond of using my melee weapon and Raptor Strike, so embarrassing looking back! I was growing tired of my hunter after a while, as you do, and that's when my Priest was made.

I have had a Priest character since vanilla, she was officially my 4th character, but really my 2nd main character. Basically our guild needed a healer, and combined with my interest in hunters fading, I thought I'd give it a go. Levelling up was extremely slow and very very difficult, since I was holy the whole time, and considering what spells and talents were available back then, any sort of DPS in holy spec didn't exist. Smite, smite, smite, smite, smite, smite, smite, smite, smite and pray that its dead and then drink after every monster to replenish mana. It was a very slow process, but I did manage it in the end! Ding 60!

My main memory from playing my Priest at level 60 was definitely the day my friend Ryyu got me a spot in another guilds Molten Core run to get me started with obtaining my very own Benediction, the weapon that every priest wanted so so badly. Our guild at the time only did the 5man dungeons pretty much on repeat, and we would join UBRS 15 man pugs if they were going. Oh the memories of 15man UBRS's...hell springs to mind.

When Burning Crusade hit, I did continue with my priest, but by then, the allure of possibly changing to a Horde character had sunk in, not helped by friends on that side asking me to join them also. At the time, faction changes didn't exist, so I had to purchase a second copy of original WoW and burning crusade in order to level on the same server, but on the opposite side. Nevertheless, I did it, but not as a Priest, but as a Blood Elf Rogue, revisiting the first class I played. Of course I had withdrawal from my Priest so naturally I made another one, my Blood Elf, Kaitz and I faced another 1-70 grind as holy. At the end of Burning Crusade, I had again switched back to my Alliance priest, and by this time my boyfriend had seen me play the game for a while and decided to join me and get an account of his own. After raiding SSC, MH and a little of Black Temple we were pretty confident that this was where we would be for the remaining part of the expansion and life was good. However, another switch happened sooner rather than later when we went on holiday and came back to discover our guild had disbanded.

My boyfriend and I made a new start when Wrath of the Lich King came out, well I had my priest at level 70, but he joined me on the horde side as a Deathknight. I stayed Horde right through Wrath, Cataclysm and until I made my current main, Severiti, half way through Mists, switching sides once more. Sadly horde Kaitz still sits benched, waiting for that day that I will no doubt switch sides.. again.

The changes in all classes is staggering when you think back to what was available to us in the original game, but I think Priests have had a nice gradual progression, and I love the variety of things that can be done with them now. The whole Holy vs Discipline argument has always cropped up, especially when I have the idea that Holy was and always will be the ONLY spec to go, but each to their own right? ;D ha ha!

When I recently
switched to the Alliance, I managed to resurrect my original character,
formally known as Kaitie, to be transferred to Ghostlands and become
part of my WoW game once more. This is my current transmog, thanks to the Black Market Auction House and its ability to give players the chance on tier 3. Of course I use Benediction also, can't imagine a time when I won't use it for transmog to be honest :)

and that's my WoW history!

What about you guys? If you have written about it already, send me a link to your blog, its always fascinating to see where people started and where they are today.

Sunday, 17 November 2013

A much needed update of the character models has been on the cards from Blizzard for a long long time. Blizzard said they didn't want to lose the original feel, but just wanted them to look better in the process and to refine them where necessary. People have been really impatient with these, and this years Blizzcon has finally given us a glimpse into some of the races they have updated and they were well worth the wait!

The Warlords of Draenor panel gave us the first look, and featured the male dwarf, male orc and male gnome. We had seen the orc through the Garrosh model in SoO, so that wasn't a huge surprise but the dwarves and gnomes are so so good! I never really thought that they were needed so much on these two races especially, but how wrong I was. It's always the before and after shots they show that really highlight how much we need these models.

I continued on to watch the Art of World of Warcraft panel and they featured so many more, I was so pleased they had more to show than just the three on the WoD panel.

Undead male:

Current undead male model

New undead male model!!!

New undead model - some of the face options

Oh.. my...god! It's incredible. I always hated the look of undeads bones sticking out, especially the elbows and the strange spines. Now they look so bad ass and rightly so they are meant to look like undead people. Unfortunately they didn't show the female undead, but we'll just have to be patient, they will no doubt look great too.

Gnome male:

The comparison between the old and new gnome models and some expressions!

What a difference! Male gnomes looking so good now!

Gnome female:

before...

and after!

I have never played a gnome female and to be honest probably never will, just never felt the need to play as one, but I 100% agree with the update of the gnome females, the eyes being bigger gives them that cute 'I wouldn't hurt a fly' vibe, when really they give as good as any!

Dwarf male:

Love the detail to the dwarf males, especially the beard decorations! The fact they have body hair also, you would expect them to have it, but it wasn't there on the old models, nice detail indeed.

Dwarf female:

I am so so blown away with the dwarf female, just WOW! I love it and I am definately going to make one when WoD hits. I can sense a significant rise in dwarf female players from then on for sure.Orc male:

Great to see this model on an orc who isn't Garrosh. Can't wait to see the Orc females!

Tauren male:

before...

and after.

I can't get used to this new model, I have to be honest. I like how fluffy/hairy it looks compared to before, but the face just doesn't look right to me personally, can't pin point what it is but I'm not keen. Maybes I'm just too used to the original look.

Overall a magnificent job on the models that have been shown so far. The fact that they have teeth and tongues to help with the facial expressions is brilliant and of course the models have proper fingers, toes and proper finger and toe nails! That was one of the things that bugged me alot on the old models, especially the humans, so I'm excited to see those when they get them ready.